Kristen Day - Forsaken

17 years ago

“I don’t know if I can do this, my love.” Looking at her, he tried to muster the same strength within himself he saw shining in her wise, beautiful eyes. She was so strong, so poised. Only someone who’d spent a lifetime with her would see the depth of her pain within the slight lines framing her eyes.

“It is for the best – this is the only way,” she whispered, as she lowered the large basket onto the porch. Then louder with a resolve coming from deep within, “It shall come to pass.”

She took a small step back from the front door of the town police station with what seemed to be a great deal of effort. Her eyes closed and her head bent forward as a single tear escaped and rolled down her cheek.

He watched as the night air swirled around, and then through her hair, lifting it from her shoulders as if to caress her sadness away. With the silver moon high in the clear sky, the rest of the town was fast asleep. The 2:00 hour was approaching fast and even the stars seemed to shine with urgency. Time was almost up.

Looking back down at their precious delivery, he took a deep breath, inhaling the rich aroma of the sweet grass woven into the basket. He hoped in vain it would be successful in warding off evil.

Kneeling down carefully, he unfolded the overflowing layers of silk and velvet blankets. The piercing blue eyes that looked back up at him took his breath away. Swirling with all the colors of a Caribbean lagoon, they watched him intently. As if guessing what had to happen next.

His words caught in his throat as his tears threatened to spill over. He swallowed and tried again to say the words he needed to say, “My precious baby girl. You are my moon, my stars, and my sky. You are the very breath that gives me life. One day an understanding will come. For now, we must say goodbye.”

She reached for him and gave him the brightest toothless grin he’d ever seen. His heart slowly ripped apart, shattering into a million jagged pieces that would never be whole again. Remembering the braided seaweed bracelet he’d been holding in his hand, he carefully tied it around her tiny left wrist and made sure it was secure.

“This is not goodbye forever, my sweet girl, only for now. We love you with all our hearts….”

The tears began to spill over and he felt a hand softly touch his shoulder. She nodded in understanding as he stood up and walked down the steps, unable to stop the overwhelming wave of complete and utter sadness.

He looked on as she whispered something into the basket, and then kissed their little girl’s cheek with such tenderness it broke his heart all over again. She folded the soft layers of fabric back to protect their baby from the crisp wind blowing off the ocean, and then slowly stood. She turned, met his eyes, and walked down the steps to stand by him. His rock. His everything. They would do this together. Hand in hand, they took one last look at their miracle and walked into the shadows, leaving no trace they were ever there.

Present day

I registered the icy cold first – a slow, painstaking ache felt all the way down to my soul. The realization that I was swimming at a dangerous depth came next, followed by an absolute and suffocating panic. The pressure around my body had become utterly relentless, and my lungs screamed for oxygen. Suspended in the darkness, I couldn’t see anything except for a thin ribbon of silver appearing in my line of sight. Slithering side to side, twisting and turning, it taunted me. I froze as it slowly wrapped around my neck, leaving a trail of icy pin pricks across my bare skin. It continued down my body – encasing me in fear. All of the sudden, it tightened with such force that the small amount of the air I did have in my lungs was forced out. As I heard the sickening crack of bones and felt a paralyzing pain searing through my body, I knew no amount of struggling would help.

Unable to do anything but watch the last of my oxygen bubble up to the surface above, I tried to come to terms with what was about to happen. I was going to die. Completely alone and scared, I was going to drown in this darkness.

Unbelievably, just as quickly as it had locked around me, I was released. Looking around frantically, I braced myself for another attack, only to find a pair of piercing blue eyes watching me.

The same deep blue eyes I’d seen in so many other dreams glared back at me with something resembling rage.

“Why are you here?” I barely heard his next words as my lungs began burning and my vision blurred. “Your soul will never survive.”

He turned abruptly and my vision cleared just enough to catch a glimpse of the horrors lurking behind him. Hundreds of silver ribbons quickly morphed and twisted into shadowy human forms.

They turned in my direction in unison and descended upon me.

I bolted upright, my heart relentlessly hammering against my chest. Warm water surrounded me, but it was of the bubbly, lavender scented sort, not the cold, murky darkness I had just come from. I was still in my bathtub. No wonder I had dreamed I was drowning. Shaking my head, I tried to erase the vivid memory of it. Unfortunately those eyes - his eyes - never fade. They’ve haunted my dreams for years.

I rolled my eyes at my own unruly imagination and slid down into the tub, so my head and shoulders were the only things above the thick layer of bubbles. My heart rate eventually slowed and I began to think straight again. I closed my eyes and tried to relax…

“Hannah Elizabeth Whitman!!!” So much for the slow heart rate. I rocketed back into a sitting position, covering myself with my hands.

“You scared the crap out of me, Dee!” Doris Whitman stepped all the way into the steamy bathroom. The smell of baby powder and freesia followed her in. She shook her head at me, “You’ve been in there so long I swear I can hear your fingers and toes wrinklin’ up. Now get washed up and get dressed – we’re gonna be late!”

“I’m hurrying, I’m hurrying.” I mumbled as she walked back downstairs, already giving out orders to the rest of the family.

I decided I’d rather hide under the blanket of soapy bubbles and try really hard to disappear into an alternate universe, instead. Submerging my body completely underwater, a smile crept across my face as the sound of the outside world instantly became muted. All I could hear was the faint lapping of the water on the sides of the tub, my own beating heart, and a faint melody tickling at my ear drums. It reminded me of wind chimes blowing in the wind….wait. Wind chimes? I listened harder and heard them again; this time louder and something else… like someone singing…

With ninja-like speed, I jumped out of the claw foot tub in one swift movement and stared down at the water in shock. I tried to convince myself I was just hearing things. There were no wind chimes hiding in my bathtub. I’d just add that to the long list of weird things that had been happening to me over the last couple of years. That list was getting way too long for my taste.

“I hope all that racket up there is you jumping into your clothes!” She must have sonar for ears or something.

“I’m almost ready!” I wrapped a fluffy blue towel around me and padded into my room, doing a quick search of my closet to find something to wear. The Hartfords had been planning this party for months and according to Dee ‘everybody who’s anybody’ would be in attendance. Living in the Deep South, Georgia to be exact, I’d become accustomed to Atlanta’s Society and all the trappings (I mean opportunities) that came along with it. But, I hadn’t always lived here. The Whitman’s adopted me when I was 13 years old. They had high hopes that I would turn out to be a perfect southern young lady like their own daughter. Little did they know I was damaged goods from the very beginning. No amount of grooming or etiquette classes would change that. Bouncing around from family to family in the Georgia foster care system, I experienced and witnessed things that would make a grown man cry. I learned the hard way that once you’ve seen evil, it brands you for life. Your heart becomes hardened and you are never, ever the same.